You get up at night to grab something from the kitchen, you turn on the light and what’s there? An unpleasant surprise! A cockroach! After just a glimpse, the sneaky little pest hurries back to its safe space away from your eyes. Not too far away from you might be the cockroach nest.
You’ll see cockroaches primarily at night because they’re nocturnal. They come out during the day only in case of an ongoing infestation. So, where are they hiding most of the time? And how do you get rid of them?
Cockroaches have the unsettling ability to flatten their bodies enough to fit even between a wallpaper and a wall. They produce a scent that attracts other roaches, and they can get all crammed into one very tight space.
Around the nest, you can find eggshells (oothecae), dead roaches and droppings, and you’ll probably be able to smell it.
If you want more in-depth information, here is how to recognise the unmistakable signs of a cockroach infestation.
Cockroaches love humid spaces, safe away from humans and close enough to food sources like dinner leftovers and other delicacies like sewage. It’s not uncommon for them to be hiding in plain sight.
The bathroom holds many hiding spots for these persistent pests. Medicine cabinets, the plumbing, behind the bath and sink, behind the tiles, just to name a few. The bathroom is preferred because it provides a good source of water and food (toilet paper, soap residue, hair), and it’s dark and moist most of the time. Cockroaches can use the drainage system to move around and even visit your neighbours.
Call our pest technicians and they’ll happily rescue you from any creepy-crawlies.
We can all agree that cockroaches in close proximity to where food is prepared needs to be avoided at all costs. What can their dwelling be in the kitchen?
Of course, any place that can provide warmth and a bit of water can be suitable for cockroaches to thrive. It seems like there isn’t a food source there, but remember that cockroaches can survive on things like cardboard boxes. They can move freely through the holes in the wall where the plumbing enters.
Basements stay undisturbed by people most of the time so that an infestation can form quickly there and without your knowledge. It’s spacious and provides various nesting spots – in cracks in the walls and ceiling, floor cavities, behind old unused furniture, inside boxes, you name it.
Cockroaches chew on newspapers, books and, as we already mentioned – cardboard. The longer the infestation has been around, the more noticeable the damages get.
The drain itself is not a place where the cockroaches usually make a nest unless it hasn’t been used for a long time. A garbage can under the bathroom or kitchen sink might be the reason why cockroaches dwell in and around the drain. There also might be crevices around where the downpipes go into the wall. You can opt-in for drain covers, but that just masks the problem without addressing the real one.
Cockroaches might be nesting outside your home and still come around to visit you in the house. Not all types of roaches like warmth. Some prefer cooler temperatures, which helps them survive in wider conditions. This means they can be hiding in garages, porches, pipe ducts, around rubbish cans and more.
There are several steps to remove a cockroach nest and ensure the cockroaches don’t come back to your home.
All of these steps sound easy and straightforward, but the real battle is dealing with the live roaches that survived, not the nest itself. When the cockroaches scatter around, you risk just chasing them from one side of the home to the other.
Our suggestion is to find a professional pest control company to inspect, exterminate and monitor the infestation. Exterminators have methods for dealing with different types of cockroaches and know what works. These persistent pests know how to hide and survive with little, so regular checks are necessary.
What you can do to help is maintain the overall cleanliness of the home and leave the treatment to the professionals.
Our exterminators can come to the rescue and cleanse your home from all pests.
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Help roaches and clutter everywhere!!! Help
Check your electric kettle base…!!! Nobody mentions this…!!! I discovered that my kettle base was the nesting site. Although it appeared to harbour no cockroaches, when I turned it upside down, sprayed directly into the holes (against manufacturer\’s recommendations) and tapped it vigorously, I was stunned to see literally about 100 German cockroaches of varying sizes from about 3mm to 15mm long come out. They must have been packed in there like sardines! Throw it out because even if you manage to get every cockroach out, there will be eggs that will hatch later. Stop any cockroaches that were out and about (hiding elsewhere) and missed ejection, from entering the new kettle base. Otherwise they will just make it their new home and start nesting and breeding again. Check your toaster too and do the same if you have any suspicion, but the electric kettle base right under our nose offers the best home for cockroaches – inaccessible to wiping, normally protected from sprays and often located centre stage to crumbs from food preparation so no need for the cockroach to travel further away to reach the bait you won’t place near your food preparation area. Think about it… could manufacturer design a better nest for cockroaches?
Dear madam i am working as entomologist in well reputed hotel but cockroaches issue is out of control even after using management and control measure please suggest some practices
Hey, Thank you for such great idea
Thank you for such information very helpful.